Elsen
Elsen make up the most population of the Zones. They are the first populous encountered in the game, and they are the general neutral party that make up most of the population of the world of OFF. The entities generally dress in very sterile, formal attire, which seems to be related to their jobs. They have limited awareness about both themselves and their environments. However, their attitudes and actions vary depending on where they are, such as with Elsen in The Room actively assisting The Batter and The Player. They are encountered in every Zone with the exception of Zone 0. Profile Appearance The Elsen, as most characters, are black and white in appearance. They appear to be human, but their faces display blank, emotionless expressions. Their eyes have shading that conveys both a sense of being 'bloodshot' and having a 'black eye', which may indicate physical suffering. All inhabitants look the same with different degrees in clothing. Most wear a white collared long sleeved shirt with black dress pants and a black tie. However, over-world sprites have their dress pants colored white instead for an unknown reason. Miners from Zone 1 have a hard hat with a light, as with a few from Zone 3. Others in Zone 3 wear what seems to be some sort of biohazard suit or laboratory coat. They appear to be male, although their gender is never specified in the game. Elsen are generally not hostile at first, though they may stand in the Batter's way or otherwise be unhelpful to him. Yet should an Elsen undergo significant personal harm and/or stress, he may become Burnt. These Elsen undergo a physical transformation in which they succumb to some kind of corruption, becoming enemies to be defeated. Personality Most Elsen are extremely timid. Many seem to have mild to severe degrees of neurosis as well as other psychological impairments. They startle easy, but things depend on the various Zone in terms of the specific kinds of timidness they seem to take. * Elsen of Zone 1 are mostly timid, and they are more inclined to support their jobs despite being faced with both physical danger as well as an unruly supervisor in Dedan. * Elsen of Zone 2 are more obsessive with safety, and they seem to let their fears get the best of them, with one Elsen in particular feeling physically ill to the point of vomiting merely by sitting. * Elsen of Zone 3 are addicted to sugar, and they will act depending on how much they have had, growing ever more hostile the closer they are to withdrawal. In The Room, several Elsen can be found who ask the player trivia about earlier points in the game, and they reward the player with special items if they answer correctly. One of the rooms also contains a very large Elsen who watches the player as they traverse the room. It is unclear if this Elsen is truly building sized or if he happens to only look as such due to something such as being projected onto a screen. All of the Elsen in the areas seem to act like caretakers or teachers. Burnt When Elsen are highly stressed or are ailing in health, they may become Burnt. A Burnt Elsen will literally lose their head, which is replaced with a fountain of a liquid substance (interpretations vary as to whether this is blood, some kind of fluid-based darkness, etc.) from their neck. When an inhabitant transforms into a burnt, it apparently gets much stronger to the point of even being able to fight off specters. This is displayed in Zone 3, when three inhabitants catch three specters in a sugar storage room and transform into Burnt out of fear that the specters would take their sugar. Those three easily kill the specters before turning on the Batter. There are varying degrees of Burnt Elsen. Trivia * Elsen are not the official names of the citizens, the term just became so popular that even Mortis Ghost himself adopted the name for the inhabitants. * Burnt Elsen still use the regular Elsen world sprites and face-sets. This may suggest that the monstrous battle sprite that is seen of the burnt might just be a perspective distortion, similar to how the Batter looks like a horrific being upon fighting against him when siding with The Judge in the final battle. This may also indicate that their corruption flows in fits and starts, their bodies changing depending on the moment, or perhaps something else. * Scared Elsen have their eyes and mouth appear to increase in size, with their teeth becoming visible, to a degree in which it looks like just being scared causes them to feel direct physical suffering and show signs of some sort of corruption already happening. This may point to Elsen as a whole being in a fundamentally weak condition and having an internal corruption even before any kind of stress. * The Critic-Burnt possesses many similarities to Hugo, as both of them: ** Do not express any hostility to The Batter. ** Are visibly highly sick and likely in severe, chronic pain. ** Seem to have an impaired awareness of what is happening and the larger situation. ** Must be killed in order to progress through the game, even though both have not particularly done anything (unlike the specters) and appear essentially "innocent". * The "Pastel" segment of the Pastel-Burnt's name means "Cake" in Spanish. Which relates to the love of sugar that the Elsen of Zone 3 had. It could also mean that the Pastel-Burnt has ingested more sugar than that of a common Elsen worker. * It has been stated by Mortis Ghost on his deviant art page that the Elsen look the way they do because of a strange and violent disease.Enoch and the Elsens are humans, but in a context totaly unrealistic. Enoch is udge, and the Elsens victims of a strange and violent disease. All of that isn't very scientific, it's just a story. - DeviantArt * Some Elsen are aware of the existence of Burnts, demonstrated when whilst the residential area of Bismark is under attack from Porter Specters; one particular Elsen states explicitly that he doesn't "Want to be burnt", along with others saying that they "Don't want to be a specter". ** However, most Elsen outside of Zone 2 never mention or acknowledge the existence of Burnts. This could be because normally Elsen tend to transform when they are alone and under more stress, but the Elsen in Bismark are constantly under stress due to their safety-obsessive nature and are consequently more susceptible to transforming. ** The Burnt Elsen look may be a result of the combination of sulfuric acid and sugar, which causes a chemical reaction that looks very similar to the head being "blown" off. * The term "Elsen" seems to come from three sources in the game. The first station in Zone 1 is called Elsen, and the large inhabitant that resides in one of the areas in the Room. They are also referred to as "Elsen" in the game's credits. Also, while discussing the game with his fans, OFF creator Mortis Ghost also refers to the inhabitants as "Elsen". ** "Elsen" might have derived from the Biblical name Elijah. Gallery Elsen sprite.gif | Sprite Bigelsen.png | Big Burnt.png | A regular Burnt. Found everywhere in Zone 1. Valzong-burnt.png | A Valzong Burnt. Found in Bismark in Zone 2. Calvary-burnt.png | A Calvary Burnt. Found in Areas 2 & 4 of Vesper in Zone 3. Critic-burnt.png | A Critic Burnt Found in the tracks of the Vesper Monorail in Zone 3. Pastel-burnt.png | A Pastel Burnt. Found in the Music Box room in Area 4 of Vesper in Zone 3. Burned 01.jpg | Burnt concept art, they were originally supposed to have huge heads. Burned 02.jpg | Concept art of a Burnt. Burned 03.jpg | Concept art of a Valzong Burnt. Burned 04.jpg | Concept art of a Calvary Burnt. Burned 05.jpg | Concept art of the Pastel Burnt. Burned 07.jpg | Concept art of the Critic-Burnt. Burned 06.jpg | Concept art of a Burnt. Monster 04.jpg | A Valzong-Burnt's fume being engulfed by a spectre. HaplessElsen.jpg | An image of multiple spectres spewing out of the head of an Elsen drawn by Mortis Ghost. It is being sold as a print on his RedBubble account.|link=http://www.redbubble.com/fr/people/mortisghost/works/22406222-off-hapless-elsen References Category:NPCs Category:Enemies